


Coming to Osaka

by wheezemadejaway



Series: Worth It: Japan Trip 2017 [5]
Category: Buzzfeed Worth It, Buzzfeed: Worth It, Buzzfeed: Worth It (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, M/M, but less angsty than before
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-05
Updated: 2017-11-05
Packaged: 2019-01-29 19:57:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12638088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wheezemadejaway/pseuds/wheezemadejaway
Summary: Osaka is different than Tokyo, dirtier maybe. Andrew’s not sure exactly, but he notices something even from the moment they step off of the Shinkansen and onto the station platform.





	Coming to Osaka

**Author's Note:**

> If you ask if I am more loyal to Osaka or Tokyo, I'm going to have to say Osaka.
> 
> This story the fifth part in the "Japan Trip 2017" series. If you have not read it yet, please start with [Two Stops Until Shinjuku](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12424176), then continue on with [Ippakume (First Night)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12460257), [Rie, How Do You Say 'Get Your Shit Together' In Japanese?](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12493776), and [Nihakume (Second Night)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12602628).
> 
> Edit 11/11/17 (Make a wish!) - Rewrote several passages from this after getting guidance from Friend A. Thank you, Friend A!

Osaka is different than Tokyo, dirtier maybe. Andrew’s not sure exactly, but he notices something even from the moment they step off of the Shinkansen and onto the station platform. 

Rie leads the way, lugging a bag on each arm yet still managing to skillfully maneuver her roll aboard suitcase through the crowd of departing and embarking passengers. She keeps looking back over her shoulder like she’s a nursery school teacher, mouthing “1, 2, 3,” to herself as she makes sure that Andrew, Adam and Steven are following close behind. Normally, Andrew would offer to help carry something, but he’s weighed down, too, with his own luggage and camera equipment. They’ve all got their hands full.

“Rie, is the hotel close?” Steven asks, dashing into the safety of the space next to Rie. Andrew can’t help but notice that he’s been stuck to her ever since she met up with them that morning. Of course he’d choose her. She’s safe. 

Steven has barely looked at Andrew since last night in the hotel, and only when they were shooting footage of the train ride, Rie squished between them.

Andrew’s grip tightens on his equipment bag. He stays a few steps away.

“We’ll have to take the local train, but it’s only a couple stops,” Rie assures him with a patient smile.

Andrew tries to ignore the way that Adam quirks one eyebrow at him as he settles alongside, matching Andrew’s pace. Instead, Andrew focuses on the click-clack of the wheels of Rie’s suitcase as they glide over the platform tile. He finds order in their grating rhythm. It’s a relief after a long train ride of trying to sort out all the thoughts that have been cycling over and over in his brain.

“I like Osaka already,” Adam says in his gentle way, so that Andrew hears him but doesn’t really catch what he’s said until a moment too late to respond. Or maybe it’s just that Andrew’s just too focused on the wheels, on Steven, on garish and noisy signs plastered to the station walls in a language he can’t read.

The click-clacking stops when they step onto a descending escalator. They’re forced into line single file, with Steven standing directly in front of Andrew. He’s just two stairs down. Close enough that Andrew can see the sweat pooling on the back of his neck. Andrew’s sweating, too.

Osaka’s even hotter than Tokyo was, but that’s not the entire reason why.

Rie swivels her body, beaming up at them as she exclaims “Everything’s funnier in Osaka!” as if it’s some sort of intrinsic knowledge. She gives Adam a thumbs up, but Andrew looks back at Steven’s neck, stomach lurching. Steven doesn’t turn around. 

Andrew’s not sure that much is going to make him smile for the rest of this trip, no matter how funny Osaka is, as long as Steven keeps on ignoring him.

At least they’d filled the day’s schedule pretty well: hotel check-in, Osaka Castle, Pablo’s Bakery for cheese tart, dinner somewhere fancy that Rie assures them is the most delicious place to eat in the whole city, and then later that night they’ll be drinking barrel-aged coffee because the owner of the coffee shop is particular and doesn’t want them disrupting business by being in his shop during normal hours.   


The escalator ride ends, and the click-clacking resumes for a moment before they draw to a stop again in front of the ticket gates. 

Rie and Steven are talking, and she’s instructing him on how they’re going to have to put their two mint-colored tickets into the ticket feeder, and that only one’s going to come back out, but Andrew decides not to listen too well because Steven’s smiling at Rie and being animated and normal. How can Steven do it? Pretend so well that last night he hadn’t been pinning Andrew to the wall and kissing him.

Pretend that nothing ever happened.   


But it’s Andrew’s own damn fault. He’d wanted to talk to Steven, to put words to what was going on between them, but he should have known that Steven wasn’t going to want to do that, not yet. Andrew’d misjudged everything, probably from the start when he’d let his inhibitions get the best of them, and it hurt. It hurt badly. 

To his right, Adam’s either trying to hide a frown or show some sort of broody solidarity, Andrew can’t decide, as they both search their pockets for their tickets. 

Rie has a little silver and green card that she just has to rest on top of a sensor to pass, but the rest of them manage to get their tickets situated without setting off the machine and summoning a ticket agent.

Andrew lets out a deep breath and as they enter the station thoroughfare he tries to make himself forget how shitty the whole situation is. 

Click-clack, click-clack. 

But Osaka is different than Tokyo, a little more honest perhaps. Everything’s less sleek and pretentious. There’s something less contrived about the people milling about, and there aren’t as many of them in one space to need to try and fool. 

Rie and Steven are talking again, rambling on together and even though it’s English, Andrew can’t quite focus enough to understand what they’re saying. His eyes dart from poster to poster strung up along the corridor. They’re all advertisements with beautiful scenery, beautiful food, beautiful people. They all hurt his eyes.

He squares his jaw, focusing on Rie’s bag again.

Click-clack, click-clack.

Click-clack, click-clack.

Rie’s laughing. Steven’s laughing. Adam’s laughing. Andrew hasn’t heard the joke. For just a moment, Andrew feels Steven’s eyes on him, but when he looks up, Steven’s already turning away.

Still, for a split second, Steven had acknowledged him. Worried for him, perhaps.

Warmth spreads through his chest. Hope.

If Tokyo wasn’t the right place to try and sort things out, then maybe Osaka will be. 

  
  



End file.
